---
Late at Night, at Kotone's Ho
Kotone quietly slipped into her family's small apartnt, located in an aging residential block on the eastern edge of town. It was already past eleven.
It usually took her about twenty minutes to get ho from Haruki's place. On school days, she'd head there right after classes, working alongside him until late. Ever since they started collaborating, their weekly chapters had been turning out smoothly, both in quality and on schedule.
Most nights followed this routine—school, assisting with manga, then ho to rest. To outsiders, her life might seem repetitive or even dull. But to Kotone, these past weeks had been so of her happiest. Once she got over the initial awkwardness of working with Haruki, they'd gotten along better than she expected. Surprisingly well, actually.
The fact that the manga they worked on—Rurouni Kenshin—was now being serialized in Sora still felt surreal. It hadn't been long since Haruki had casually said he wanted to reach the top, and yet... it didn't seem so impossible anymore.
Even if she wasn't the official author, just being part of sothing this successful made her genuinely proud. The sting from all those past rejections—the submissions no one responded to—had started to fade.
She unlocked the door and stepped inside.
It was brighter than she expected. Normally, the apartnt was already dark by this ti—her grandmother would usually be asleep. But tonight, sothing was different. The flickering light from the television spilled into the room, where her grandmother sat on the couch, listlessly flipping through old photo albums filled with family pictures.
"Grandma?" Kanna called out softly. "You're still up?"
Her grandmother Sachiko Shirasaka, looked up. Small and slightly hunched from age, she turned off the TV and gave Kotone a tired smile.
"I couldn't sleep," she said. "I was thinking about your father... and your grandfather."
Kotone froze for a mont in the doorway, unsure of how to respond.
"Your father was so caught up in those manga... He really believed he could make sothing of it. That trip to Tokyo—he was chasing a dream. If only he hadn't gone... maybe things would've turned out differently. And after that, your grandfather... he never really recovered."
She paused, wiping her eyes, then sighed again. "But… there's no point dwelling on it. It's all in the past."
Kotone stepped inside, slipping off her shoes. She set her bag down by the door.
"I'm ho, Grandma. It went alright today."
"You're in your final year of high school," Sachiko said suddenly, her tone shifting to concern. "You should focus on studying. That tutoring job you're doing… I know you say it helps you review, but coming ho this late every night—how are you supposed to get enough sleep?"
"I'm alright, really," Kotone said quickly, sitting beside her. "Helping others study is kind of like reviewing for myself. And it's not hurting my grades—I've still kept my spot at the top of the class."
Sachiko looked skeptical. "You're too much like your father. He used to say things like that too. And look how that turned out."
She began to reminisce, as she often did. "Your father… he wasn't great at school. But once he found manga, that was it. He dropped out to beco an assistant, then spent years drawing without earning a yen. Eventually, soone agreed to publish his work, and that's when he t your mother. She ca to help him as his assistant, and, well… the rest is history. That's how you were born."
"He always talked about going to Tokyo. Even dread about publishing overseas soday. But in the end… he never made it there."
Her voice faltered. "If only he'd focused on his studies instead… maybe he'd still be alive."
Kotone sat in silence, her chest tight with emotion.
Sachiko reached over and patted her hand. "You're different. You're bright. You have a real chance. I want you to go to a good university, get a stable job, marry soone reliable. That way… maybe I'll feel at peace with what happened to your parents and your grandfather."
Kotone had heard this speech many tis before.
She knew her grandmother blad manga for everything. First for corrupting her father's ambitions, then for the tragedy that followed. To Sachiko, manga had taken everything from their family.
She could never understand that the very thing she hated had also beco Kotone's passion.
That's why Kotone never told her the truth. That she wasn't just tutoring—that she was a manga artist too. That she worked with Haruki, and that their series was currently one of the hottest titles in serialization.
As long as her grades stayed high, Sachiko let her keep the part-ti job.
But how long could she keep up the lie?
Could she really live like this forever?
Later that night, after Sachiko had gone to bed, Kotone stood by the window of her room, watching the snow drifting quietly outside. The soft glow of the streetlights illuminated the flakes as they fell, silent and slow.
She sighed, leaning her forehead against the cold glass.
She really was her father's daughter.
Their personalities might've been different… but deep down, they shared the sa dream.
---
*In December in Osaka, the temperature dropped sharply, and the snow in the sky has basically never stopped since it began to fall.*
But unlike this cold weather, Rurouni Kenshin's reception in the Osaka manga market was quite the opposite.
Since the first episode was ranked only eleventh in the voting on the manga, the second episode jumped to fourth, with the number of votes reaching an impressive 14,000.
Since then, although there have been as many as 20 serialized manga, the results of most of the works could only be described as tepid. In reality, the entire Kurokawa Publishing is closely watching four manga
The veteran author of Kurokawa Publishing, Shinji's Demon Realm, Haruto Minami's Celestial Book,
and the top manga artist of the original sora Series who had joined Kurokawa Publishing,
and the newcor who had never appeared in front of everyone, with only his editor Sora being responsible for contacting him, Mizushiro-sensei.
Throughout the manga industry in Osaka, Mizushiro-sensei and his work Rurouni Kenshin were gaining more and more recognition, and the fourth chapter of Rurouni Kenshin opened a new chapter in Lost Cat.
After the astonishing eting of the two in the second episode, the scene in the third episode shifted. The woman who had t Kenshin in the rain fainted and was taken by Kenshin to the place where he lived.
Kenshin also learned the woman's na.
Yukishiro Tomoe!
The following plot seed sowhat slower, focusing on the daily life and mories of the characters Kenshin, Kaoru, and others in the manga. Compared to the intense fight scene between Kenshin and the enemy in the rain, and the stunning eting with Kaoru at the end, the excitent appeared to drop a bit.
Many readers who had eagerly awaited it for a week seed disappointed. They wrote letters and comnts on the website, urging the author to draw more action-packed scenes.
But even so, the number of votes in the third episode still rose sharply, from more than 14,000 votes in the previous issue to over 19,000 votes in this issue.
This surprised so in Kurokawa who had initially thought that the second episode of this work was just a flash in the pan.
Nowadays, most people in the entire manga industry already understood it.
Rurouni Kenshin was truly a dark horse.
It had entered the manga market with a bang during this cold winter, quickly becoming one of the top manga among the three major manga Magazine in city with only four serializations.
Although it was still ranked fourth in terms of votes, people with discerning eyes could see that the popularity of this work was trending upward. Even Haruto Minami's Celestial Book, which was ranked third, had already started to feel the pressure.
---
"Damn it..."
Inside the editorial office, Rika sat at his desk, jaw tight, his mood darker than ever.
For the past two days, all he kept hearing were three things—Mizushiro-sensei, Rurouni Kenshin, and worst of all, whispers about sora.
Even when he walked through the manga departnt, he caught glances. So of the younger staff looked away too quickly, others smirked when they thought he wasn't paying attention.
He wasn't clueless. He knew exactly what they were thinking.
Everyone at the office knew what had happened. He had tried—and failed—to pursue sora. His so-called authority had been used not for professional decisions, but personal grudges. He had tried to sideline her work, all because she wouldn't yield to him.
But what did that achieve?
After months of effort suppressing her projects, all he'd done was drive her into the arms of a new rising star. Mizushiro's sudden ergence had flipped the entire manga scene on its head. Rurouni Kenshin wasn't just gaining traction—it was becoming a phenonon.
And that terrified him.
Mizushiro had no prior fanbase. No famous debut. Just four chapters—yet the manga had already climbed to fourth place in reader votes, surpassing ten thousand supporters. Rika could feel the gap closing fast.
In his estimation, Hidden Girl—that fantasy romance series by Yuna Takahashi—would eventually overtake Demon Realm, the long-standing pillars of the sora Series.
But Rurouni Kenshin?
It was a different beast altogether.
The first chapter had pulled in over 4,000 votes. The second exploded past 14,000. What would the third and fourth bring? If the trend continued, it wouldn't just catch up.
It would take over.
A year ago, anyone suggesting that a completely unknown newcor could top the manga charts would have been laughed out of the building.
But now?
Now that thought felt less like a joke, and more like a slow-building storm.
Rika clenched his fists.
He hadn't co here to lose.
His posting at Kurokawa Publishing wasn't so leisurely break. He was here to sharpen his resu. His future depended on it.
His father had spent his entire life as an editor at one of the most prestigious manga companies back ho. Rika was supposed to follow in those footsteps. Succeed him. Carry the legacy forward.
So he'd co here to stand out. To gain real results. "Deputy Chief Editor at Kurokawa's Series" looked impressive on paper—but only if he had hits to his na.
If his projects weren't number one, then what was the point?
People rember the champion, not the runner-up.
If he failed to deliver, his return ho would be aningless—and worse, his father would see it too.
Despite his father's seniority, the industry played by its own rules. There were rivals, factions, limits to what favoritism could cover. If Rika didn't bring real results, he'd be starting from behind.
And now, Mizushiro—this upstart—was threatening to shatter everything he'd built.
No. He couldn't let that happen.
This wasn't about a personal grudge anymore.
It was about survival.
(TL:- if you want even more content, check out p-atreon/Alioth23 for 50 advanced chapters)
Reviews
All reviews (0)